Crop Sensor V Full Frame - Which is right for YOU?

Many don't realise it, but sensor size can be pretty important when picking out a Camera. And here's why... Full Frame sensors have distinct advantages and disadvantages in certain situations. If you don't choose the right type of sensor with your camera, you may start to run into inconvenient hurdles. Firstly it's important to define what Crop and Full Sensors actually are.


The best way of explaining the terms, what they mean and where they come from would be to establish that we're well and truly modernised now with most of us using D-SLR's rather than film cameras. D-SLR's don't use film, instead they have a sensor that's sensitive to the light that is allowed in via the lens - it then cleverly converts the data collected into an image - a photograph! A full frame digital SLR refers to a camera that has a sensor size roughly equivalent to a 35mm film frame (24mm x 36mm).

A crop sensor is exactly what it says on the tin - it's smaller than a full frame sensor and therefore captures a narrower amount of light, which gives a smaller field of view.

Full Frame and Crop sensors have different purposes in photography, and neither of them is superior to other, except when comparing their size. Bigger is most certainly not better, it all comes down to the photograph you're trying to take.

The main difference between the 2 is their crop factor. The full frame is effectively able to give you the most field of view, where as a crop sensor will reduce the field of view, but will also give you a false sense of further reach. The benefit of this in crop sensors, is that you will get less noise than if you were to crop and zoom in on the same image taken with a full frame sensor. This is why crop sensors are used extensively in sport and wildlife photography as most photographers are away from the action and need the benefit of getting a slightly better image when zoomed in. The image below shows how different sensors will frame your image.



Crop sensors are assigned a factor of value, such as x1.6. What this means is that compared to a full frame the crop sensor is theoretically zoomed in at a factor of 1.6. So a 50mm lens is theoretically acting as an 80mm lens (50 multiplied by 1.6). This doesn't magically change your lens length, it only gives that illusion based on the field of view. You may find many articles on this which has caused many debates and arguments.

Full frame sensors are employed mostly in closer proximity photography, such as portraits. Due to the size of the full frame, they can also cope better with less high ISO noise, which makes them great for taking photography in low light situations. Full frames, due to their larger field of view, allow for photographers to take advantage of the ultra wide lenses. Full frames do suffer a little bit when wide open, compared to their crop sensor counterpart when it comes to vignetting and lens distortion. Most of these can be fixed in post production now and are generally less of a concern.

All this comes with a price however. Full Frame cameras usually come at a premium that means the camera body is much more expensive and also the lenses that fit it. This does not make them more professional, only that manufacturing costs are higher. Full Frame denotes the largest sensor currently utilized. In the future, a larger sensor could be made to take it's mantle, thus demoting the now Full Frame to a crop!

One article is never enough to cover everything that you may need to know, if you feel we've missed something out just let us know! We'd also love to hear whether you use full or crop sensors and see some image comparisons of your own!



This article was bought to you by TouchedD and Kaz-D on behalf of CRPhotography